With reference to the WWW. and Day of the Match-by Scott Murray and Rowan Walker.
Willy Garbutt was born in a small village near Stockport. His family was large, sharing his home with his parents, grandmother, six older sisters and a younger brother. Joining the army at a young age, the young William Garbutt first played football there for the Royal Artillery.
He spent four seasons playing for Blackburn Rovers, making 82 league appearances and reaching another FA Cup semi-final; he also played for the Football League XI. His playing career having been blighted by injuries, he retired from playing in 1912, aged 29.
He moved to Genoa in Italy in May 1910 (which is described as the most English town in Italy), to work on the docks after retiring from playing football, to support his family.
He was appointed as the new head coach of Genoa FC on 30 July 1912, with no previous experience and only aged 29. It is not clear how he came to be their manager, some reports say he was recommended by Vittorio Pozzo who would go on to coach Italy to two World Cups. Others state it was Genoa's youth coach, an Irishman named Thomas Coggins, who pushed for Garbutt's appointment.
Garbutt restructured the training regimes, putting a heavy emphasis on players physical fitness and tactics. This was not the only part of managing in Italy that Garbutt set the proto-type for; he conducted Italy's first ever paid player transfers, where he signed two players from club Andrea Dorio and one from A.C.Milan. As well as making Genoa the first Italian football club to play outside of Italy; thanks to his connections back home in England he was able to take Genoa to play his old club Reading.
From when Garbutt first took over in 1912, until 1927 when he left the club, Genoa were victorious in the Italian Championship three different times; 1915, 1923 and 1924. The latter of which to this day, is the last time Genoa won the Seria A championship. AFTER Genoa:
On 22 July 1927 a new club was founded from the merger of numerous clubs in Italy's capital of Rome, A.S.Roma and Garbutt was brought in as their first ever manager. He stayed there for only two years but captured a tournament named Coppa CONI with them, as well as helping them reach third in group A of the Italian Championship..
Garbutt moved on next to Naples, taking over from Giovanni Terrile at SSC Napoli. It was a legendary time for the Napoli with the new club records; finishing third in both 1932-3 and 1933-4 seasons of Serie A. Napoli would not achieve this again until the 1960s.
In search of a new adventure, Garbutt moved to Spain in 1935. He took up the position as manager of Athletico Bilbao,leading them to the Spanish Championship topping Real Madrid by two points. He returned to Italy in 1937, taking over very briefly at SC Milan.
William Garbutt soon moved back to the club where he was held in such high regard; Genoa. Since Garbutt had left in the 1920s, Genoa had gone into a slump even being relegated at one point. But with Garbutt back at the helm he coached the club back up to 3rd in his first season back.
His return would be short lived however, as a British citizen he was exiled under Mussolini's fascists and returned home to England. After the end of WW2, Garbutt returned to Genoa for a third time and then returned home. By the time Garbutt died in 1964, he was an anonymous octogenarian livng in relative poverty in Leamington Spa. In Italy, every newspaper in Italy carried his lavish obituary. He was deeply mourned, in Pozzo's words as 'the most important man in the history of Italian football'
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